Apr 26th, 2016: Spaghetti Nebula

[xoxoxoBruce]

The Spaghetti Nebula, or Supernova Remnant Simeis 147 and Sh2-240, if you want to get picky.

The glowing gas filaments cover nearly 3 degrees -- 6 full moons -- on the sky. That's about 150 light-years at the stellar debris cloud's estimated distance of 3,000 light-years. This sharp composite includes image data taken through a narrow-band filter to highlight emission from hydrogen atoms tracing the shocked, glowing gas. The supernova remnant has an estimated age of about 40,000 years, meaning light from the massive stellar explosion first reached Earth about 40,000 years ago. But the expanding remnant is not the only aftermath. The cosmic catastrophe also left behind a spinning neutron star or pulsar, all that remains of the original star's core.

I'd explain all that but suddenly I'm real hungry... for pasta.

link

[Snakeadelic]

Suddenly I think that tomorrow night (since I have the gem club meeting to go to this evening) I'ma have to bust out my best recipe for attracting hungry neighbors...bison marinara. I use locally ranched bison (1 lb. ground), the usual spices with a bit of extra garlic and sometimes a dash of extra oregano, and a base simmered slowly down from a quart of my mom's organically-grown heirloom variety tomato sauce with sea salt.

Somebody needs to figure out a way I can email servings to hungry online acquaintances...

[glatt]

So very many stars. I know there are a lot of stars. I've basically always known there are a lot of stars. But would you look at that? So many stars.

[Leus]

That's His Noodly Appendage playing your scientists, you heathens.

[BigV]

Ha!

Well played, Leus.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by glatt

So very many stars. I know there are a lot of stars. I've basically always known there are a lot of stars. But would you look at that? So many stars.

And that's only 3 degrees, so times 120, for just the stars we can see.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by glatt

So very many stars. So many stars.

At least a dozen.

[Tanalia]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

And that's only 3 degrees, so times 120, for just the stars we can see.

120 would only cover a narrow strip circling around the sky; covering the full sphere would be about 4580 of these little 3x3 patches.

[Griff]

Call it a baker's dozen.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by glatt

So very many stars. I know there are a lot of stars. I've basically always known there are a lot of stars. But would you look at that? So many stars.

yeah, a lot...

This huge ball of stars predates our Sun. Long before humankind evolved, before dinosaurs roamed, and even before our Earth existed, ancient globs of stars condensed and orbited a young Milky Way Galaxy. Of the 200 or so globular clusters that survive today, Omega Centauri is the largest, containing over ten million stars. Omega Centauri is also the brightest globular cluster, at apparent visual magnitude 3.9 it is visible to southern observers with the unaided eye. Cataloged as NGC 5139, Omega Centauri is about 18,000 light-years away and 150 light-years in diameter. Unlike many other globular clusters, the stars in Omega Centauri show several different ages and trace chemical abundances, indicating that the globular star cluster has a complex history over its 12 billion year age.

[SPUCK]

Originally Posted by glatt

So very many stars. I know there are a lot of stars. I've basically always known there are a lot of stars. But would you look at that? So many stars.

Ah. Don't forget planets! They've come to the conclusion that there is at least one planet for every star you see and I suspect that will be greatly increased because that number is arrived at by looking at how many planets Kepler has seen as compared to the stars it monitors and it can only see large planets.

That means the Milky Way Galaxy (ours) has at least 400 million planets.

I'm picturing green slime aliens ooooozing along the surface of at least one of them.